Our cultural tours are designed around travel themes. We introduce grand sites and out of the way treasures, take you from markets to feasts, explore awe-inspiring landscapes and architectural masterpieces and create unforgettable signature moments.

Newfoundland History 101

[We invite you to join us for a literary adventure very close to Ann’s heart: In Search of the Newfoundland Soul, in August 2017. What’s in store for you in Newfoundland? Read on to find out!]

What do you think of when you think of Newfoundland?

Because of the musical Come From Away, a current smash on Broadway after a wildly successful run in Canada, you may heard something about the people of a tiny town who welcomed and cared for 7,000 stranded passengers for a week following the September 11th attacks, when 38 planes were ordered to land unexpectedly.

If you are from the U.S., you may have in mind some vague images of a hospitable and wholesome people inhabiting a remote island full of rocks and sea and colourful wooden houses. You may think Newfoundland is part of Canada’s maritime provinces. You would be wrong.

If you are Canadian, you may know that Newfoundland and Labrador is one province, the most recent to join Canada, but you may not know that Newfoundlanders are driven nuts when mainlanders mistakenly assume they are part of the maritime provinces. You probably know that Newfoundland is known for its great local music.

Chances are you do not know much about Newfoundland’s stormy history and the defining role of a charismatic and ambitious figure, Joey Smallwood. From a large and poverty-stricken family, Smallwood was a socialist turned union buster, and then a scrappy journalist turned politician. Almost single-handedly, he determined the fate of this a massive British Dominion on the Eastern seaboard as it faced a crossroads at the end of WWII. After throwing off British colonial rule, Newfoundland became an independent dominion in the early 20th century. But when the economy collapsed in the Great Depression of the 1930s, the people voluntarily relinquished their independence to become a British colony again. Prosperity and self-confidence returned during WWII. Would Newfoundland join the U.S. as its forty-ninth state? Maintain ties with the British via a British-led commission of government? Should it join Canada?

Smallwood remains controversial to this day. This August, at the Winterset in Summer Literary Festival in Newfoundland’s Eastport Peninsula, we will dig into Smallwood’s unconventional life and legacy though two masterworks – Richard Gwyn’s definitive biography, Smallwood: The Unlikely Revolutionary, 1968, and Wayne Johnston’s expansive novel of historical fiction, Colony of Unrequited Dreams, 1989. Was Smallwood a saint or sinner? A despot or a national hero? Richard Gwyn will be there to help us decide.

Newfoundland seems to be hitting the theatres these days. Colony of Unrequited Dreams has been cast as a crackling narrative with a sultry jazz scored and a cast of forty characters. Check out the trailer here.

Worldwide Quest operates custom designed tours in natural history, culture and the arts on all seven continents. Worldwide Quest offers a series of small group tours led by experienced and engaging leaders designed to enrich and inform in some of the world's most fascinating regions. We also create exceptional Private Journeys for families and friends and design customized travel programs for professional and cultural institutions. Created in 1970 (as Quest Nature Tours and Worldwide Adventures), we are Canadian owned and operated with offices in Toronto, Canada and New Delhi, India.
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